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Former Trenton Marriott, once a city-owned hotel, will take on Wyndham brand, officials say

Lafayette Yard Hotel and Conference Center auction 11/25/2013

The Trenton owned Lafayette Yard Hotel and Conference Center on Monday, November 25, 2013, the day the hotel was sold at auction for $6 million to Edison Broadcasting, a New York-based media company that owns several television and radio stations. The city owned parking garage at left was not part of the sale.
(Martin Griff / The Times of Trenton)

TRENTON — The formerly city-owned hotel will soon have a new name as the inn’s new owners have reached an agreement with the New Jersey-based Wyndham Hotel Group, the companies announced yesterday.

“We are excited to become a branded hotel again and to be able to offer the capital city of New Jersey a Wyndham,” said the hotel’s general manager Ben Zabala.

A Wyndham spokeswoman said the agreement was reached Monday but could not provide further information about the deal or the exact name the new Wyndham hotel will take.

Zabala said the hotel’s owners, family-owned Edison Holdings, will have the ability to renew the deal with Wyndham on an annual basis.

The negotiations with Wyndham have been ongoing and were part of the discussions before the company’s deal to purchase the Lafayette Yard Hotel and Conference Center from the city at a bankruptcy auction in November.

The hotel, known as the Trenton Marriott at Lafayetted Yard, was built by the city in 2000 and opened in 2002 to great fanfare. It was operated by a public board of mayoral appointees.

The hotel was never profitable under the board’s operation and the city of Trenton paid the obligations on the bonds that were taken out to build the 197-room inn. The board filed for bankruptcy last summer and a court ordered bankruptcy sale was conducted selling the unbranded and struggling hotel for a high bid of $6 million, far less than the $60 million it cost the city to build the hotel.

The hotel began searching for a new brand when Marriott, which had agreed to put its name on the hotel when it was built, said it would leave the city in June 2013. In the search, the board agreed to pursue a contract with Wyndham, but a requirement for the flag to sign on was that the city would have to pay for renovations to the aging building. At that time, the city estimated the cost to bring the building to Wyndham standards would cost $2.3 million.

Zabala, who has been working at the hotel since his company, Marshall Hotels, was brought on in June to operate the inn, would not say how much the new owners were spending on the buildings upgrades but he did say that the renovation plan was similar to that which was on the table when the city was in negotiations with Wyndham.

“We believe that having a brand will show stabilization at the hotel for the first time in about three years,” Zabala said. “It shows that he ownership is here to stay, the brand is here to stay and it should allow us to grow.”

He said although the room prices are expected to rise from those offered since the hotel has been operating without a brand, the rates will stay below the prices they were when the inn was operating with a Marriott name.